Spring 2000

I am probably the last person on Earth to catch on to this, but Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is great music.

And this a great rant by Courtney Love, who makes awful music but is surprisingly thoughtful when it comes to the music business.

Is this a great picture of Andrew, or what?

There are a couple more pictures of the boys playing soccer on this page.

When people that I know come to this site, they often comment that I seem to have written vast amounts of material. I, on the other hand, am constantly amazed at how spotty the entries are. A few words every week or two. Hardly seems like anything to get excited about.

People also ask how I find the time to keep it going. The answer to that one is easy: don't watch sports on TV. I haven't watched a hockey game since 1997, and I can't remember the last football or baseball game I saw. It's amazing how much time most people diddle away on sports.

This site is up and running at its new location: brannan.org. Eventually stuart.brannan.com will stop working, but for the time being it automatically redirects you to this page.

I enjoyed Nicholas Cristopher's book "Veronica" so much that I went out an bought his latest novel "A Trip to the Stars", and you can read about it on the book page.

I am really unhappy with the folks at mailbank.com. A couple of years ago I paid them for my email address (stuart@brannan.com) and the going rate at that time was about US$5/year. They also included 5MB of space for this website at no extra cost.

Since then, they have jacked up their rates to US$10/year for the email address and another US$20 for the website space. This is an unconscionable increase so I have decided to move my internet presence to another location. I have purchased the rights to brannan.org and so effective immediately my new email address is stuart@brannan.org and at some point the website will be moving too. As soon as I get around to transferring the files, Proxy Communications and Bernard Becker (who seems very nice) will be hosting the site.

 Colin had a loof toof, and it finally fell out.

I updated the Paris page with a couple of pictures. More to come.

I updated my comments on Summer Gone with an email from the author, David Macfarlane.

I had a traumatic experience in Philadelphia last Friday.

Here is list of things I learned or remembered in Paris.

On the way to Paris I saw David Lynch's "The Straight Story"; it is a great, great movie. A very old man makes his way across the US mid-west to a reconciliation with his dying brother...on a garden tractor. In the context of the movie, this makes perfect sense.

On the way back I saw "American Beauty"; it is filled with cartoonish characters, uses its soundtrack with the subtlety of a chainsaw, and it doesn't even make sense. The premise is supposed to be that we, all of us, get so caught up in the day to day business of living that we lose track of the really beautiful things in our lives....like plastic shopping bags meandering aimlessly on a stray breeze. But the main character, played by Kevin Spacey, meanders aimlessly through his life, and yet that ISN'T beautiful. It doesn't add up.

Lichtman's is bankrupt. With 3 stores competing against each other in the downtown core, one of which is across the road from the "World's Biggest Bookstore" it's no wonder. But the upside is that they are clearing inventory and I picked up a copy of David Macfarlane's novel, Summer Gone.

I'm off to Paris tomorrow...Hoo! Hah!!

Heidi exercised her editorial veto over some of the content of this page by insisting that I publish a correction. On 2 April I wrote that the boys made their own breakfast and so Heidi and I got to stay in bed. Truth is, it really only made a difference for Heidi. I got up at my usual time. There, now you know!

What is it about advertising that makes it so irritating and trivial when you come across it in its natural habitat, and yet makes it seem like art when it is presented for its own sake?

Yesterday was Andrew's ninth birthday, and once again he asked some of his best friends to stay overnight at our house. A wild and woolly time was had by all as they raced from movie theatre (Road to El Dorado), to "Lick's" for gourmet hot dogs and chicken fingers, then home for cake and lots of wild shenanigans in pyjamas. Pictures to come.

I'm listening to my MP3's tonight. So much great music. Talking Heads are "Burnin' Down the House", Lennon sings "Imagine", Les Paul and Mary Ford wonder "How High the Moon?"

I have updated the reading list with comments on Lolita.

Last Friday I dropped in at the "opening" of Michele DuCharme's photography exhibit in Bronte. It was good, really good. I would point you to Michele's web site so that you can judge for yourself, but she doesn't have one. That's a cardinal sin for an artist these days. (I don't think Michele thinks of herself as an artist, yet. She is a runner and a mother...but I keep thinking of her as an undergrad friend and roommate).

Today was a milestone day on a couple of fronts. The kids made their own breakfast so Heidi and I got to lounge in a bit longer than usual this morning. Then later, after Colin lost one of his front teeth at the dinner table, they both announced that they no longer believe in the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny or (and this is a big one) Santa Claus.

I updated the web-site today and dropped the use of the title "Dispatches", which I have been using since 1996. I think it is an improvement, but I am not completely happy. The site needs more colour. I will fiddle with it over then next few weeks and see how it evolves.